1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a quality assurance (QA) system and method that quantitatively rates users that perform and/or participate in medical procedures, particularly in the area of radiology. The present invention relates to systems, methods and computer-based software programs that analyze data and generate QA scorecards for radiologists. In the process of doing so, a number of objective data are collected for real-time and future analysis, thereby providing objective feedback to radiologists for continuing quality improvement. In the end, the invention is intended to improve patient safety and overall clinical outcomes.
2. Description of the Related Art
The first and foremost priority for any QA program is to improve quality of service. As QA programs are implemented in the medical field, the ultimate goal is to improve patient care. To accomplish this goal, products and/or services should offer procedures for increasing accountability and improving feedback among users that participate in a medical study. This ultimately will enhance patient diagnosis and/or treatment, which leads to objective improvements in overall health outcomes.
Medical imaging has undergone a transition from film-based imaging technologies to digital imaging technologies. Digital imaging technologies provide digital processing capabilities, such as image capture, image archive, image transfer, and image display that may be shared among users to the medical study. Digital imaging technologies further allow data that is associated with the digital processing operations to be captured and combined with the underlying digital imaging processing operations.
Accordingly, a need exists to leverage digital imaging technologies to increase accountability and improve feedback among users that participate in a medical study.